Safe in Your Arms

Chapter 10

Tina wandered down into the basement. She had left Nagini upstairs, practicing the spells she had learned that morning. She had only had her wand for two weeks but she had already learned a lot. Tina was impressed by how quickly she was learning.

She glanced into Newt's office. He wasn't there but Bunty was. She was sorting through a bucket of feed.

"Bunty," Tina said. "Where's Newt?"

The woman looked up. "He went out. He said he needed to buy food."

Tina nodded and turned to leave. As she walked back toward the staircase she felt something under her foot. She stopped and lifted her foot. It was a silver disk. She crouched down and picked it up. It was a coin. 

A Sickle, she reminded herself. She still wasn't quite used to British money. She glanced around there were a few more coins of different values scattered to both the left and the right. Her eyes followed the trail further into the basement. It led to the Nifflers' burrow. She got to her feet and hurried over to it. The cage door hung open slightly. 

Tina peeked inside. The walls of the burrow were coated in all sorts of shiny items, both valuable and worthless. However, there were no Nifflers to be seen. She spun on her heels and bolted back towards Newt's office.

"Uh, Bunty," she called. "You might want to come." 

Bunty looked up and Tina motioned for her to come. She set down the bucket she was holding and moved around the table. She joined Tina in the doorway and they made their way out of the room.

"We've got a problem," Tina said, pointing to the Nifflers' burrow.

Bunty moved forward quickly. "Merlin's beard," she gasped. "I mustn't have closed the cage properly. Newt's going to kill me when he gets back. I promised it wouldn't happen again."

"He won't kill you," Tina said, suppressing a laugh. "Why don't we just catch them before he gets here?"

Bunty looked apprehensive. "We can try but do you know how difficult it is to catch a Niffler, Miss Goldstein?"

"Yes," Tina said. "But I think we can manage. When I first met Newt, he and Jacob, the No-Maj, managed to recapture his Erumpent. Also, the three of us recaptured Dougal and one of his Occamies, which was the size of a two-story house, at the same time. I think we can catch a handful of Nifflers."

"Well, we'll have to find them first," Bunty said. 

"Right," Tina nodded. "There's four?"

"Uh-huh."

The two women went in separate directions. Bunty hurried up to the main part of the house. Tina followed the trail of shiny items. It wasn't a very obvious trail, it was only a few pieces, but they led further into the basement. She picked up each piece as she went, slipping them into her empty pocket. She reached the entrance to the Mooncalf enclosure. Three of the Nifflers were in the entrance, fighting over a gold coin.

Approaching them slowly, she carefully reached up and unclasped the necklace she was wearing. She crouched down and held the necklace forward. All of the Nifflers stopped and stared at the dangling jewelry. Two of them came forward slowly, fixated on the necklace. The third had gone back to the coin and was trying to shove it into his pouch.

Tina dropped the necklace on the floor was the Nifflers reached it. They pounced on it and she scooped them up. She kept an eye on the third Niffler as she held onto both of the others with one hand. Then she pulled out her wand and cast a few of spells on her pocket: one to make it bigger, another to protect the contents from any outside influence, and another to seal it that way the Nifflers couldn't escape. She gently slipped the two squirming creatures into her pocket.